Herman - Finished

Here is the finished version of Herman waiting for approval. The mane was still a bit wet when I took the photo and has a bit of light reflection from the daylight lamp.

Herman

Herman at lunchtime today.

Herman

Next stage of Herman.

Herman

Here is the beginning stage of Herman. The photo has come out quite dark even with the daylight lamp being on. This is going to be quite a tricky painting as Herman has done a Phillip Schofield with speckles of grey hair in his coat so I am trying to reduce the amount of grey in the coat whilst still keeping the sun highlights. Luckily I like a challenge!

Hash - finished

Here is the final version of Hash, waiting for approval. I've really enjoyed this painting, it's always fun to do interesting poses so I must remember to push this idea to more customers!

I don't know if you've spotted on my showcase blog but I had some very exciting news the other day. I recently entered some of my paintings into a competition held by the American publication Art Horse Magazine. I won the Directors Choice Award for my painting 'Alert', this painting also came 2nd in the painting category with my painting 'The Stare' coming 7th! They also produce a book following this competition and are including another of my paintings, 'Meandering', in this book!! I'm so excited by this news, it's always a great boost to the confidence and extremely humbling being in amongst some fantastic equestrian artists. Click here to see more about the competition.

Hash

Nearly forgot to upload Friday's painting! As you can see, not far to go, just Hash's head and then some shading on the ground under the raised feet to give the appearance of walking on something solid and not floating. I've been really enjoying this commission as it's such a different pose to the norm and I'm definitely going to try and convince more customers to follow suit in the future if they like the outcome of this one.

Hash

Update on yesterday's work. I've nearly finished all the legs and will then be making a start on his body. I always work on the parts of the body that are towards the back, behind other parts of the body, in this case the head as it will help the head to stand out when I come to paint it.

Hash

Camera has charged!

Hash

I have started the painting of Hash but the camera's battery has just died as I tried to upload the photo of the painting so I will have to wait until it's recharged before I can get it on here! I'm desperately trying to catch up on all the admin side of this business as I've let it slip a bit. My finances hadn't been done since September!! I recently had another artist say that I had to watch I didn't become a workaholic which I chuckled at as I've never considered myself to be one but I don't spend enough time on the admin and marketing side of art that I should. Advice is that you should spend half your time painting and half your time on admin but I'm more 90% painting and 10% admin so I'm going to change that next year. You don't realise there's so much more to painting than just the painting when you take it up!

Frankie - Finished

Here is the finished version of Frankie. I always feel really privileged being commissioned to produce paintings of all these gorgeous horses as they are a joy to do.